people, Israel, were a part of the heathen world, not knowing God, without Him, and without hope in the world. The Lord Jesus rebukes His disciples: “Now when you are anxious about these things (perhaps we ought to emphasize the word things right at this spot), remember that after all these things do the heathen seek.” It is heathenish to worry! You are acting like a man who bows down to a God of wood and stone who did not create him, who is not alive, who does not hear, who does not speak, who does not know, who does not think, is not aware of the needs of his wor shippers, and who, if he did know the needs, would be helpless to do anything about them. Jesus said His disciples were not to live as if God were dead. In verse 33 is the fifth reply to this whole busi ness : Put first things first! “ Seek ye first the king dom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” Maybe the reason why some of us lose sleep at night is because that down in our hearts we have this guilty realization that we have not been seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We haven’t been tak ing care of God’s business and so to teach us a lesson God has suddenly stopped taking care of ours, momentarily. He has permitted trials and tests to come, though always measuring them to us and controlling them so as to fulfill His purpose in us. One of Satan’s most successful strategies in putting Christians out o f business as far as being effective witnesses is concerned, is to get their at tention on secondary matters. “ Seek first the king dom of God” and when you do that God has won derful ways of taking care of our best interests. Now for the last statement we turn to verse 24: “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Not “ excessive” but “ sufficient.” The evil referred to here is not evil in general, but the daily load of care he has been talking about, the burdens, anxie ties of life. He says each day’s load o f care and responsibility will be sufficient. It will never be excessive. Get the picture? You have in this Scrip ture a personal guarantee from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself that no 24-hour period of your life will have in it more problems than you can handle through Christ. It will not have more bur dens than you can bear through Christ. It will not have rougher circumstances than you can stand through Christ. This is His personal guarantee that every believing heart can get through one day — “ Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” We are so foolish to add tomorrow’s cares and next week’s care even next month’s care. You know we might be in heaven before tomorrow. The Lord Jesus Christ might be back again to receive us unto Himself before tomorrow. How foolish it is! I like the way a modem writer put this verse and I understand he made a million dollars out of his
book on worry. He said, “ Learn to live in day- tight compartments.” “ Lord Jesus, I am going to trust you for today. Get me through today. I may be in heaven before tomorrow morning; get me through today by thy grace!” In Philippians 4, you have the lesson of thank ful praying. “ In nothing be anxious but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiv ing let your requests be made known unto God” and the requests will be granted? No, it does not say that! It says “ in nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication with prayer and thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus,” whether the answer is yes or no or wait. The promise is the receiving o f the peace of God regardless of what the answer to those requests might be. Some years ago the United States Public Health Service put out bulletins that said this: “ So far as is known, no bird ever tried to build more nests than its neighbor. No fox ever fretted because he had only one hole in which to hide. No squirrel ever died of anxiety lest he should not lay by enough for two winters instead of one. And no dog ever lost any sleep over the fact that he had not enough bones laid aside for his declining years.” How true! The Psalmist says, “ I have been young and now I am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.” Read the first two chapters o f Job. Note how God boasts about Job and Satan challenges Him. Satan admits that God has put hedges about Job— a hedge about his family and possession, a hedge about his health, a hedge about his life. Possessions, family, health, and life itself can only be taken in the will of God as He removes a hedge. God meas ured out with perfect control the sufferings of Job so that he was not permitted to receive above what he was able to bear. That’s the kind of care that God has over us. I can’t believe that God is less in terested in us than He was in Job. “ In nothing be anxious!” Two elderly gentlemen lived in a home for sen ior citizens. One day one of them said to the other, “You know, there is something I can’t understand about you.” “Oh, what’s that?” asked his friend. “You go to bed at night and sleep till morning as round as a baby. I wake up several times during vhe night and am restless and fitful in sleep. How in the world do you do it? I wish I could sleep like that.” His companion replied, “ I’ll tell you. Many years ago I read that the Lord neither slumbers nor sleeps. I believed it then and I still believe it today. I decided then that it didn’t make much sense for both of us to be up all night, and so I decided to go to sleep and let Him take over.” Let us be as wise as that gentleman! OB
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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